Somali in The Hague Faces a More Personal Attack

By MARLISE SIMONS

Published: May 24, 2006

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is among the most famous and successful immigrants in the Netherlands, along with several soccer stars. A Muslim atheist, as she calls herself, Ms. Hirsi Ali, who was born in Somalia, rose to win a seat in Parliament and gained a reputation for probing the uneasy coexistence of Islam and the West. She reviled her religion, bringing on death threats.

Rita Verdonk, a former prison warden, is the Dutch minister of immigration and hopes to become the first woman to serve as prime minister. She had been rising in the polls because of her tough stance on illegal immigrants.

The two politicians, once friends, even allies, are now caught in a conflict so personal that Ms. Hirsi Ali has disclosed family letters in her own defense.

The quarrel began when a Dutch television team delved into the false story that Ms. Hirsi Ali gave when she arrived as a political refugee, listing a wrong name and birth date to hide from a man whom her family had chosen as a husband. Although the details had often been acknowledged by Ms. Hirsi Ali, Ms. Verdonk said she was forced to strip Ms. Hirsi Ali of her Dutch nationality.

But then her many foes began to use the television report as a fresh opportunity to cast doubt on her broader credibility about her history and beliefs.

Stung by the attacks, Ms. Hirsi Ali has made available to The New York Times several letters that support accounts of her life that are now being questioned.

She has been a lightning rod in a country that is moving to the right as it struggles with how to deal with immigrants, most of them Muslim. After two high-profile political assassinations, one by a Muslim radical, the Dutch are deeply divided over whether to be cautious or blunt toward Muslims, who are not quick to adapt to Dutch mores.

But Ms. Verdonk is also being vilified. Newspapers, even those critical of Ms. Hirsi Ali, have lacerated the minister for her handling of the case, and after a 10-hour grilling from an outraged Parliament and public reprimands from cabinet colleagues, something rarely seen here, the prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, ordered that Ms. Hirsi Ali's citizenship be restored.

Dutch diplomats, embarrassed by scathing news coverage abroad, have insisted that Ms. Hirsi Ali is not being silenced or expelled, and say she decided to take up a fellowship in Washington even before the latest dispute broke out.

But the public is divided. Opinion polls say half the people questioned agreed with the immigration minister's move, while Internet chat rooms for immigrants have bristled with insults, bidding good riddance to the Muslim ''traitor.''

As she resigned from Parliament, Ms. Hirsi Ali politely expressed her sadness but said the difficult questions about ''the future of Islam in our country'' would not go away.

It is true that in this country of 16 million people, more than a million of whom are first- or second-generation Muslim immigrants, distrust runs deep, and it has been aggravated since the terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London.

Hikmat Mahawat Khan, leader of the Contact Group, an umbrella organization for Dutch Muslim associations, said some Muslims who had been critical should be concerned. ''Instead of blaming Ms. Hirsi Ali, they will now have to deal with difficult subjects themselves,'' he said.

A persistent question across Europe is whether newcomers should be made to adapt to local customs.

Ms. Hirsi Ali urged the Dutch to stand firm, and not to appease immigrants. She said Dutch Muslims needed to free themselves from the control of clerics who preached subjugation of women and ostracized homosexuals. The 40 or more Islamic schools isolate children and could breed dangerous militants, she argued, so they should be closed.

All this disturbed the Dutch culture of consensus.

When Ms. Hirsi Ali joined Parliament in 2003, she was lionized by the news media, which were fascinated by her articulate debates in perfect Dutch, her daring approach to Islam, her arranged marriage in Africa, her exotic beauty.

But as one commentator wrote, she suffered from overexposure. As she gained international fame and was courted by foreign media and institutions, Dutch newspapers began to criticize her as a celebrity for whom the country was too small.

''For a long time Ayaan was treated like a saint; now there is a lot of anger and the press has been attacking her in the last year,'' said Geert Mak, a writer and social commentator. He said he often disagreed with her, but abhorred the way she was being treated. ''She belongs to our society, she was formed here,'' he said, ''and after the death threats she had to live here like a refugee.''

Ms. Hirsi Ali brought to the limelight issues that had been invisible.

Muslim wives and daughters are now a majority in shelters for abused women, she said. She urged officials to stop immigrant men from taking their wives back to their home countries and leaving them there without their Dutch documents, so the men could bring younger and more obedient brides back to the Netherlands. She said the Dutch should raise immigrant children with Dutch values.

''We are looking for balance between the many groups,'' said Piet de Rooy, a modern historian. ''This is the intense discussion of our time. We have a consensus that you give each other space, even if this is not agreeable.''

Moreover, harsh confrontations over religion are anathema in a country born from almost a century of religious war between Catholics and Protestants. But Ms. Hirsi Ali, believing the Dutch ignored what she saw as the dangers of Islam, felt that a confrontation of ideas was needed before common ground could be found between Islamic beliefs and Dutch ways.

''She irritates me deeply with her one-sided view of Islam,'' said Jan Beerenhout, a former Amsterdam municipal official and a convert to Islam. ''But I feel ambiguous. She was offensive to the Muslims from rural areas who practice an archaic form of the religion. But if she had not spoken out, many wrongs would have remained taboo.''

In recent days, bloggers and commentators have challenged Ms. Hirsi Ali's motives for fleeing to the Netherlands. She maintained that she wanted to escape a forced marriage with a Somali cousin, and while waiting to meet him in Germany, she secretly left for the Netherlands.

Defending her account, she offered a letter she received from Kenya, from her sister Haweya, in August 1992, after her arrival in a Dutch refugee camp. ''Your husband in Germany is looking for you,'' the letter reads, ''and the whole search is being coordinated by father here.''

Referring to members of their clan, Haweya wrote: ''Practically all the Osman Mahamud in that area are looking for you everywhere. Be warned.''

Her detractors have also said she lied about her relationship with her father, Hirsi Magan Isse, a former politician who had to flee Somalia. They say she had nothing to fear and had a good relationship with him.

Ms. Hirsi Ali, underlining the duress facing her, agreed to release the last letter she said she received from her father -- his curse.

In January 1993, after writing to beg forgiveness for her disobedience in refusing the husband chosen, she said she needed his blessing.

''Dear Deceitful Fox,'' her father replied. ''You do not need me and I do not need you. I just invoked Allah to disgrace you, as you have disgraced me. Amen!

''This is the last message you will receive from me, as your letter was the last message I will accept from you. Go to hell! And the devil be with you.